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Top State Department official arrives to testify in impeachment probe

A senior State Department official arrived in the Capitol on Wednesday to testify in the Democrats' impeachment investigation, bucking a White House that has vowed to offer no cooperation in the fast-moving inquiry.

Hale, a career dilplomat, arrived in the Capitol shortly before the start of Wednesday’s 9 a.m. deposition in the Capitol basement, where the three House committees leading the impeachment investigation — Intelligence, Oversight and Reform, and Foreign Affairs — have been conducting their closed-door interviews.

Brechbuhl boarded a plane heading to Germany with Pompeo earlier Wednesday. Last week, an Energy Department spokeswoman said Perry would not cooperate with the inquiry. And Vought had previously indicated that he did not plan to comply with the House inquiry with a tweet.

And Hale is the first witness to give a deposition this week after a series of witnesses refused to testify, offering various reasons.

Hale’s testimony comes as Democrats are shifting their impeachment investigation — which has been conducted in private for the six weeks since it launched — into the public realm.

Sondland, in his initial deposition on Oct. 17, had denied such a quid pro quo had occurred. On Monday, however, he revised his testimony to acknowledge that he, himself, had delivered the message to Ukrainian leaders that the military aid was “likely” contingent on Ukraine’s willingness to open the investigations Trump had sought.

Democrats have pointed to the revision as new evidence that Trump had abused his office in potentially impeachable ways. The president’s GOP allies, though, have dismissed Sondland’s addendum as the opinion of one witness — and not reflective of Trump’s foreign policy in Ukraine.

They’re pointing to the account of Volker, who told lawmakers that the hold on military aid was “not significant” to U.S.-Ukrainian relations.